Father's Musings
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: Mr Woodhouse is insightful than most think. He knows Emma will leave eventually; he just hopes it's the right man that takes his little girl away.


He felt it from the bottom of his stomach the moment Miss Taylor said I do and became Mrs Weston. He just knew it from the moment the new Mrs Weston packed her bags and moved half a mile away. He knew it from the moment Emma sighed and watched her governess leave her with sadness in her eyes.

Emma was going to leave him.

It was something all daughters do to their fathers. They must leave them in order to be a good wife to their husbands. His beloved wife had left her father to be with him and Isabella left him to be a good wife to John Knightly and very soon Emma will leave him too.

She was young, beautiful, bright, and so filled with life. Of course she was going to leave him for a young man to match her appetite of life and adventure. Someone who will allow her to go to places that he refused her. Someone who will let her wear reckless thin clothing when it is sunny. Someone who will let her be free.

The first man to come along and take his daughter was the vicar Mr Elton. He semi-liked Mr Elton. Mr Elton was a hard worker, polite, and well spoken. But he had seen how Mr Elton eyed Hartfield as if he was assessing its assets and he saw how Mr Elton looked at Emma as if she was pretty but nothing else. Mr Elton would appear rather interested in young Harriet Smith a thoughtless girl who got herself sick numerous times. Oh he knew he should have brought her a shawl for Christmas! The vicarage was not far from Hartfield but it felt too far away if Emma was to live there. He would be willing to allow the husband to live here but he did not think he could live with such a man like Mr Elton. Mr Elton would encourage reckless behaviour like he is now doing with his newfound wife – the one that he suddenly left to retrieve after he followed Emma like a stuck up page boy, surely Emma had sent him away and this has caused such strange turn in events.

So after a lot of confusing changes he eliminates Mr Elton has a threat to taking his daughter away from him.

But then along came Frank Churchill.

Frank was delightful like his father. He was bright, witty, and lively as Emma. The fact he was a handsome fellow did not hurt his chances with Emma. He liked Frank, he was a very good boy, but he was so restless. He desired everything and it had to happen now. He wanted to go out and do this and that with no care for the world. He was so eager to leave England and he found his own country so stifling that he got into such sour moods.

He did not want to give his daughter to such a man.

Then sometime during Frank's début of Highbury he began to notice that Mr Knightly was looking at Emma.

Mr Knightly was looking at Emma with adoration and admiration and the tiniest hint of one of the seven sins. Mr Knightly was in love with Emma. The realisation did not upset him or scare him. Mr Knightly might want to marry Emma but Mr Knightly did not want to take Emma away from him. He knew that. He had nothing to fear anyway Emma only looked at Mr Knightly with the affections of a friend.

Or so he thought.

During the strawberry picking at Donwell Abby when Frank's flaws outweighed his qualities he could not notice how Emma stood so close to Mr Knightly. How she looked at him with admiration and affection only a wife should have. How they whispered about him as if they were already a married couple taking care of the insane elderly member. They were already married in everything but legally and, oh he hoped to god, carnally.

He was so very confused when Mr Knightly left. Why would Mr Knightly leave? There should be no need for him to leave. Emma was heartbroken, she was no longer the same, she was pale, lifeless, a wandering soul without Mr Knightly.

He was glad that Mr Knightly came back because it had meant a happier Emma. A happy Emma was all what he wanted in his twilight years. So that was when he made his decision, if Emma wants Mr Knightly, she shall have Mr Knightly.

So when they come in hand in hand with smiles wider than their faces, Emma looking so alive, and Mr Knightly looking as young as her, he gave them his blessing.

The fact that Mr Knightly was prepared to move into Hartfield made it all the sweeter. If only John Knightly had his brother's tolerance and selflessness. Then they could have all lived in Hartfield together as one family.

Then Mr Woodhouse would be the happiest man in the world.


End file.
